HISTORY OF IDEAS - Modernity

This is a film about how the world became modern - and in particular what is exciting and beautiful about this development, and at the same time, what is hugely depressing and possibly madness-inducing about it.

FURTHER READING

“Since the middle of the eighteenth century, beginning in Northern Europe and then spreading to every corner of the world, people have become aware of living in an age radically different from any other and which they have called – with a mixture of awe and respect, trepidation and nostalgia – ‘the modern age’, or more succinctly, ‘modernity’. We are now all inhabitants of modernity; every last hamlet and remote island has been touched by the outlook and ideology of a new era…”

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Jesse Collett

Title animation produced in collaboration with

Vale Productions

[pixieskitty]

The constant nightmare of having a lot of friends online but having no hugs offline...

[YapCheeYeong]

I love how the tone of this video goes from postitive to negative, and then ends with a hopeful suggestion.

[dianaleestudio]

Oh~~ So that’s why most of us are depressed.

[InventorZahran]

Your point about constantly smiling really resonated with me. As I go about my daily life, I'm often frustrated by the forced non-genuine displays of happiness that modern society forces on us. It almost strips the humanity away from people, turning them into plastic dolls with permanently joyous expressions.

When I stop to think about it, it's rather disturbing that when some asks me how my day's been going, I instinctively respond with "good", "great", or "alright", rather than an honest expression of how I feel. And I avoid any other (genuine, but unexpected) response because I'm scared of upsetting or offending the person I'm talking with. It's almost as if I fear the societal shame of "you're not happy, therefore, you're not as good of a person". My parents and friends always told me to be open about my feelings and to not be afraid of what others say, so I must've learned this behaviour from people I don't know...

When we don't have permission to feel and express our negative emotions, what do we do? We hide them, suppress them, and attempt to cover them up with more fake smiles. Then, when we can't hide our true feelings anymore, but the societal shame of being unhappy is too great, the emotional dam breaks, and we self-destruct (literally or figuratively).

This is the price we pay for modernity.

[Zaubagel]

A video about internet culture explained by you guys would be nice

[edjones]

Disney has such a huge impact on shaping children's world views, I realise that myself looking back.

[liquid_curage]

I love the collages The School of Life sometimes makes! Your videos not only add more common sense to my days, they are also rather funny :)

[YashBashGaming]

*We're romantics*
Cynics: Interesting

[allisonzhang]

Sounds like a mockery of modernity 🤔 totally agree 😊

[morrissmith]

This feels kind of like a huge macrocosm of Baumann’s “liquid modernity” theory. While he was mostly concerned with the 20th century, it still seems to follow the same arc: starting with being internally “solid” and knowing your identity, status, etc...and being heated up/excited to a “liquid” state where you find it difficult to be static and are constantly questioning your role, purpose, etc.

[bolivar]

How very true! Understanding the disease can be the cure. Here are some things that could help us for this:

FAILURE
I love teaching guitar. And here is some insider information:  the most difficult students are not children or teenagers, but adults! They come with the mentality that they have at work: you can't fail.   But teaching someone who is extremely hard on himself can be exhausting,   because you have a constant war going on in front of you, inside that poor person...

Well, just to give you an idea:  I have learnt almost all swear words I know in German from a student of mine, who swears  at herself after every single wrong note!
I love these people and we are friends too, so they don't mind if I give them homework that is not related to guitar, but that could serve as an antidote to perfectionism in general.

I tell them to listen to these two podcasts:

1. Cautionary Tales hosted by Tim Harford
 I am totally  obsessed with this podcast! These are real stories of horrible tragedies; where people try their best for things to go well,   only to see how it all fails miserably, and how they lose everything etc.. World famous experts make terribly wrong  decisions and appear like fools and almost in every episode somebody dies a totally preventable death.

Well, but as you listen, you know that it could have perfectly happened to you as well!

Believe me, this is the most humbling podcast on the planet!

2. How to fail with Elisabeth Day
In every episode a guest talks about what he had learned from his biggest failures. There are two episodes with Alain de Botton too. They are a bit different than the usual format. But both of them are excellent!


ENVY
Two things could help us:

1. We often don't really know what we want from life. But the people we envy can give us a clue about it. There is a wonderful exercise on The Book of Life ( the brain of this channel )  that we can do.

It is called:

" A philosophical Exercise for Envy".

2. We all know people who seem to have everything we wish to have. But if we look closely, they may not be that happy as we keep imagining.

Oscar Wilde explains it here, and it could certainly happen to us too:

"In this world, there are two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it".

SENTIMENTALITY
There is nothing more depressing than not being allowed to be sad. Here is a quote that you can use when people push you to be cheerful all the time. In fact you can say this as an " act of care" towards them.

Because those who pretend to be happy all the time,   are the ones who are the most in trouble.

" Emotional pain cannot kill you, but running away from it can".

LONELINESS
The cure for loneliness is not being surrounded with many people, but feeling connected. We can also feel connected when we read a beautiful book, listen to a profound conversation on a podcast or a moving piece of music. Of course the best thing is always sharing these things with friends. But when they are not around, we can still connect with beautiful minds this way.

Another, more unusual but fun solution is this:

Why not join a choir? Everybody can learn how to sing! You don't even need to have a good voice. Does Bob Dylan have a good voice?

The other day I saw a German documentary about singing, where they confirmed this. And they also said that in Germany 5 million people sing  in 180.000 choirs! Isn't that wonderful?
In an interview the world's most famous trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk said something about the power of singing together, that really touched me deeply:

" Probably nobody has ever killed himself within 24 hours after singing Händel's messiah together."

 It's not Händel though. It could be a folk song too, of course...

In the documentary they showed that singing with the same people over a long period of time highers your oxytocin levels. You truly build a strong " bond " with them!I know an old couple, they have been singing in the same choir for 30 years!
Himmmm, indeed a choir seems like  a much more stable, fun and healthy institution than a marriage :- )


Thanks a lot for this wonderful lesson and beautiful animation!

[camilasguim]

I'm so glad the videos about culture, philosophy, etc have returned!

[syedanifrizvi]

The video brings some relief. Very grateful of the the school of life.

[dumuniz]

I see post modern societies taking advantages of technology to live more in accordance to nature.

My desire is to live in a small vilage close to nature, with wifi so I can work remotely and live far away from big city centers

[paveldzhelyov]

At 2:42 I love how the narrator goes "...mastery over death" and the illustration behind turns the Grim Reaper into an Amarita Mascuria a.k.a psilocybin (magic) mushroom, which has profound effects on one's perception of death. Kudos to you who did it!

[IAmNotABot]

These videos from School of Life seen to come to you when you are in most need of them!

[mkhitarkhitaryan]

This channel is one my favourites in In Youtube, Keep making us happy snd wondering School of Life

[ytubeanon]

how about a video on post-modernism? It feels like the post-2000's have become an endless "present now" time compared to what life felt like from the 70's through the 90's... we used to be ruled by the clock in so many ways that the internet has completely inverted by making almost everything on demand... maybe a video on that

[mrbr]

Each new generation is doomed to feel that it is the best, the smartest, and in some way special. The truth is, you aren't the best, you aren't the smartest, and you're sure as hell not special. "Modern" is a word we use to elevate our status above those less fortunate.

[javierdlc]

Please make videos more often for “the curriculum” playlist like this one! I understand that your focus it is more in self helping videos but history, philosophy, literaure playlists are really good.